UH Manoa Professor Klaus Keil Reappointed to Space Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences

University of Hawaii at Manoa Professor and renowned planetary scientist Klaus Keil has been reapppointed to serve on the Space Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) until 2010. Keil is one of 23 members chosen from across the United States that currently serve on the Space Studies Board.

In a letter from Peter D. Blair, the Executive Director of the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, Blair states that Keil‘s "insight and expertise has been invaluable to the Board; as such, this extension will allow for your continued participation in the oversight and planning of several important studies underway and follow-up projects that will ensue." Dr. Keil is a planetary scientist in the Hawaii Institute for Geophysics and Planetology, and the former Interim Dean for the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at UHM. He has received national acclaim for his scientific contributions to the understanding of the early history of the solar system and the origin and evolution of meteorites, asteroids and the terrestrial planets. He has published over 640 research papers in cosmochemistry, geochemistry, and petrology.

Dr. Keil also has the distinction of having both an asteroid and an extraterrestrial mineral named after him. Asteroid 5054 was named "Asteroid Keil" by the International Astronomical Union in 1993, and "Keilite", (Fe,Mg)S, was approved by the International Mineralogical Association in 2003.

He has received numerous awards and honors for his work and research, including Recipient of the Apollo Achievement Award (NASA), the first George P. Merrill Award (U.S. National Academy of Sciences), the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, the Leonard Medal (Meteoritical Society), the J. Lawrence Smith Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as honorary Doctorates from Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena, Germany and from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Keil received his PhD from Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany in 1961. He joined the University of California, La Jolla, in the same year and NASA‘s Space Sciences Division at the Ames Research Center as a researcher in 1963, and then went on to the Department of Geology at the University of New Mexico (UNM), first as a professor, and then as department chair. He became Director of the UNM Institute of Meteoritics in 1968. Keil joined the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1990 and became Director of the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) in 1994, and then became Interim Dean of SOEST in August of 2003.

The Space Studies Board is the focal point within the National Academies for all activities in space science and applications. The Board conducts advisory studies and program assessments, facilitates international research coordination, and promotes communications on space science and science policy between the research community, the federal government, and the interested public.

The Space Studies Board (SSB) was established in 1958 to serve as the focus of the interests and responsibilities in space research for the National Academies. The SSB provides an independent, authoritative forum for information and advice on all aspects of space science and applications, and it serves as the focal point within the National Academies for activities on space research. It oversees advisory studies and program assessments, facilitates international research coordination, and promotes communications on space science and science policy between the research community, the federal government, and the interested public. The SSB also serves as the U.S. National Committee for the International Council for Science (ICSU) Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ssb/

High resolution image available for download at http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/SOEST_News/PressReleases/Keil/DSC_3676.jpg

The School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology was established by the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaiʻi in 1988 in recognition of the need to realign and further strengthen the excellent education and research resources available within the University. SOEST brings together four academic departments, three research institutes, several federal cooperative programs, and support facilities of the highest quality in the nation to meet challenges in the ocean, earth and planetary sciences and technologies.